Eve's Lost, By John Milton

Adam ends up favoring Eve over God, but why? Milton asserts that Eve’s beauty and charm persuades Adam to love her over God. Milton gives his reasons relating only to Eve’s qualities, as he lacks to address Adam’s thoughts and feelings. I believe that Adam favors Eve because she is his wife. Adam refuses to stand by and watch God punish Eve for her sins, as this helps make his choice to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Eve’s disobedience to God is not praiseworthy to Adam, yet he sticks by her side through her mistakes. Adam even presents his dissatisfaction toward Eve, yet proves he chose her over God as he says, “Of mine to thee, ingrateful Eve, expressed immutable when thou wert lost, not I, who might have lived and joyed immortal
After Adam eats fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, he realizes that he had disobeyed the word of God, and confronts Eve by saying, “We know both good and evil, good lost, and evil got, bad fruit of knowledge, if this be to know, which leaves us naked thus, of honour void, of innocence, of faith, of puritie” (9.1071-1075). Adam’s acknowledgment of his sin shows that he understands the consequences that are to follow, which is his fall from Paradise, yet he accepts them as he was acting through his own free will. McColley advances the claim that Adam had free will to choose Eve over God as she states, “Man’s disobedience, then, was not the revelation of his nature but the violation of it: that is, the voluntary resignation of his free will resulting in the loss of spontaneous love” (McColley 107). As previously stated, Adam did not have a sinful nature, but he undertook sinful behavior as love for his wife was enough for him to choose Eve over
Eve began to question her place in the hierarchy, as she used her free will and beauty to propel her to become Adam’s equal. As the hierarchy was changing, I believe Eve’s influence on Adam was also taking its toll on his love for God. Eve ate fruit from the Tree of Knowledge which made her believe that she was Adam’s equal, as it encouraged her to persuade Adam to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Adam’s disobedience meant that both had disobeyed God and chose each other over God. This gradual progression toward sin has finally ended with Adam and Eve’s fall, in which it all began with the decisions they made with their free will. If Eve would have listened to Adam’s instructions when he told her not to leave his side, I think Eve’s curiosity would still prevail eventually. Eve seems like she was destined to disobey God and take Adam down with her. Overall, I believe that free will was Adam and Eve’s greatest asset, however, I recognize that free will allows for Adam and Eve’s fall from Paradise. Milton fused free will into Adam and Eve to test their obedience to God. McColley emphasizes Milton’s incorporation of free will to test Adam and Eve’s obedience to God as she claims, “Obedience, then, is primarily the spontaneous fulfillment of their own nature, and the tree confirms obedience by trial and keeps them mindful of both their Creator and their